The Bench Racers Journal

[Terry Bentley]

CHAPTER 123

Wow what a mess. I just about screwed up big time. In English class I did find out this Portfolio does count for 25% of the grade. Fortunately today is just a rough draft of that Portfolio. Hey journal, you notice it is now capitalized since the assignment has some weight behind it this time.

So I squeezed by again. I have to bust my butt on the real thing and make the final draft up to snuff. Mainly a typed up outline and possibly add some pictures for effect and have it in a folder to look more impressive and official.

So all of this extra paper work even before I do the oral assignment. Argh!, this really sucks. But the whole project actually counts for 25% of the semester grade. I was wondering why that figure was stuck in my head. Basically this is the term paper or final test for the class. It just comes in small pieces and put all together at the end of the school year.

From what the teacher explained, this Portfolio draft today is what she uses as a base line for what each of us will have learned during the year. Basically I can really play dumb on the first part. Then step up my game and make a grand slam on the final presentation so she thinks how much I have improved and obviously been taught due to her masterful skills in the classroom. This should help to get a better grade. Well maybe it will.

It might be fun to make up a bunch of cool stuff about a certain Clinton engine built specifically for racing in the bushing class. How much power can you get out of that little engine that could, and might still last a few races without turning into shrapnel? That is the question. To run or not to run, but for how long?

This afternoon I decided to call Chris. The last couple of weeks seems to have flown by. It has been at least a week since the last time I talked to him. For a while we talked just about everyday. But then I was working a lot, so not around to take his calls. When I did get back it was too late to use the phone, being a school night.

But today, I enjoyed talking to him the whole time. Even tho I needed to stay focused on the engines, a short break was in order. After his kart was finished and left with him, Chris has only made it to the track to work helping out Paul Fisher. He would be assistant grid steward or corner marshal. The rest of his free time was either swimming or track in school or working at Pauls place of business.

I filled him in on everything done so far. At first he was fairly quiet, but not long after him absorbing everything, the questions went flying non stop. I told him everything in as much detail that made sense without him seeing with his own eyes. I think he figured out most of what I explained. Some of his questions sure made me think he was on top of what I was telling him.

One major bummer that was fast approaching is this Friday is a teachers meeting day. School is out, but there is no way the karts would be anywhere close to being ready for a test run by then. Then Chris asked if it would beneficial if he dropped by to help.

I tried to explain he would only be doing grunt work and that gets pretty boring. And sometimes he might not even be doing that much.

Terry, I can do grunt work really well. That does not bother me at all. What time would be good to show up? Do you want me to bring my kart over too? Do you think we might be able to get my engine put on? Are the engines close enough for that to even happen?

I didnt reply back just yet. My mind started snowballing everything that still needed to be done even before the engines could be bolted to the karts. Or even bolted together for that matter. I just realized short of engine assembly, nothing really major needed to be done now.

I have not replaced the old tires on my kart yet. But that should not take too much time. If I stay focused on the engines, maybe by Friday, we really could have three karts just about finished. My mind was processing this for a few moments, then I put the phone back up to my ear.

Yea Chris, that, .... Hello? Anybody there, Chris? Daunt ... daunt ... daunt. Huh, I guess we got disconnected. I hung up the phone and waited for a moment still thinking about the possibility of our karts finally finished. Wow what a thought.

As I was about to pick up the receiver to call back, the phone started ringing again. Hello?

Hey Terry, this is Chris. What happened? I kept asking you stuff and got no reply back. Did you have to go do something? I didnt know what else to do so hung up.

Uh, no nothing happened here, but I did start thinking about what you said bringing your kart over and maybe bolting the engine on.

Really, do you mean it? I mean are they finished already?

No, not yet, but so close I might be able to get them done by the weekend. I didnt realize this Friday was almost here. My plans had been to use Friday as the next practice before racing again. But so much work I needed to get done before the engines could be put back together.

I am in the dark about a couple of things, but that stuff can be worked around for now. Nothing critical, just things that might help make the engines run a lot faster. Or blow up. I dont have a clue until just finding out by running them for a while.

So what time can I come over? I want to help out any way I can. Even if it is stuff not that important. Just so I am helping and not in the way. I know I ask a lot of questions, because I want to learn how to work on my kart, but I will try to keep in check.

I know it takes a lot more time showing me how to work on things and explaining it too. But I learned so much when my kart was getting upgraded. I have told everyone at the track about all of the work you did on my kart. I cant wait to try it out and see what a real live axle kart drives like.

But if you think I might slow things down, I wont bother you about coming over this weekend. At least until you tell me you are ready for my kart so the engine can be put on.

Oh heck Chris, you wont be slowing us down. I think now that you have worked on your kart might be able to help out a lot more than you realize. If I can finish the engines by Friday, all my kart needs is the tires changed out. Then nothing more than bolting on all three engines. You know chain adjustments and carburetor linkage set up right. Then go over the karts to make sure nothing falls off before we get back to the track.

Steve can finish working on the linkage for the other two engines. We have one ready to go. But there are three different intake manifolds. New linkage has to be made to fit each of them, since they are different. You can change out my tires while I finish the engines, if there is still more to do on them Friday. How does that sound?

You mean you would trust me to change out your tires? For real? Yea I would really like to do that for you. I am sure I can do a good job since I know how to do that the right way. I really enjoyed learning how to work on my kart and seeing it all come together so well. My kart is in the garage right now. Just about every night I double check all of the nuts and bolts practicing using my new tools just to get a feel for working on it when I start racing again.

So do you want me to come over Friday morning or maybe even Thursday afternoon? I might even be able to do that. But I need to check with Paul to see if he can pick up my kart and drive me over there.

OK Chris, it is still early in the week. Let me see how much I can get done, then figure out if everything will be close enough to ready for Friday to happen. Find out from Paul if Thursday afternoon might work, just in case. Then we will go from there. But for now, it is in the wishful planning stage. I dont know if homework is going to slow me down this week. Right now, I dont think there is anything major as a problem. Well except for Algebra.

Having you or Steve over and spending the night is not too bad. But I cant handle both of you together for the whole time. Steve can bail out and head home if things get too stressful. I really want to wind this up without all of the headaches me and Steve had when we built his kart. Man that was a mess.

I am sorry Terry. I dont mean to be a big pain all the time. But I had so much fun when I was over there. I will try to stay out of the way so you can get things done.

Oh no Chris, you were not any trouble at all. I should have explained it better. Me and Steve tried way too hard to make some things happen that were not meant to be just yet. We got impatient and in each others way the whole time while nothing was working at all. I just dont want a major headache like that week was. It sucked biggly.

I dont think you will even get in the way if asking me questions all the time. I have most of the problems worked out already and just need to iron a few things out before this weekend. Everything else should be smooth sailing.

When me and Steve were working on his kart, I was so much in the dark about everything. I mean I sort of knew what to do, just not getting it done like I wanted. Everything I tried to do took four times to get it right. Steve was having the same problems too. The harder we tried the worse things got. I was done with it for a while.

I stopped for a day then tried to figure out why everything kept backfiring. I fell asleep early while chilling out watching the TV. Sometime in the early morning I woke up all fresh and ready to try again. It was like magic. The whole day went like clock work. But that evening I had done what me and Steve had been beating around on all week with no success.

Later that evening my dad offered to help weld the frame together if I was up to it. He said I looked really mentally drained. He knows how much trouble we had all week. But I was so relieved after finally getting this far, it was do it now or maybe not ever. That night is when I burned my eyes from trying too hard making sure there were no mistakes after all the time I had put in to finally getting this far along.

You remember I yelled at you for watching me weld when we were fixing you kart? Frying your eyeballs hurts like nothing I can explain. There is no way I could deal with your eyes getting burned that day. I would not wish that pain on anyone. Even Steve after all the work without any results to show that week.

Chris let out his signature double chuckle after I almost making Steve an exception from my concerns.

For the next couple of days, I could not do anything. My appetite was not so great either. I do remember mom preparing my dinner by cutting up the chicken then mixing it with mashed potatoes, gravy and English peas. You know those really small ones. She served it in a bowl with a spoon to scoop out. That was my first meal on the road back to recovery. After finishing that one meal, all I could do is go back and lay there in bed. It felt like I was imprisoned and stuck in limbo for the remainder of my sentence.

I have to admit except the terrible pain, for that couple of days, doing nothing really did get me back in good spirits. Soon as my eyes started to heal, all I could think about was seeing that kart to the finish line.

Wow Terry, that is horrible, you almost had me crying. Then I heard Chris sniffle and clear his nose a few times. I had no idea how serious it was about burning your eyes. Could it have blinded you?

I didnt burn them that bad fortunately. Just a very light case. But yes, if I kept staring at the welding, they could have been a lot worse. I didnt even realize it then. I was just making sure everything was lined up right before dad started welding. I remembered only a couple of times catching the bright light.

But sure figured out real quick the next morning how bad it was tho. I already knew the dangers, just never got that close to happening before. I could still see, well sort of just barely, but there were little blisters all over my eyes. It felt like there was sand in them and nothing would take away the pain.

You dont know how relived I was just knowing it was only temporary. I was fairly sure my eyes were going to be fine, but not for certain until dad checked them out. The pain was nearly unbearable but knowing I might also be blind, well that would be more unbearable than I could take with the pain.

Dad told me since I was so drained and tired, my reflexes were really slow and I didnt react quick enough the couple of times my eyes got bit by the bright light when the welding rod was arced.

I kept hearing Chris with the sniffles. Hey Chris, whats wrong? Are you catching a cold or something?

Uh, no nothing is wrong. I just felt bad for you about your eyes. He cleared his throat then sounded back to normal. I will plan for Thursday and check with Paul. So let me know soon as possible. I will let you go now. It was so nice to talk. I hope to see you this weekend, hopefully Thursday after school. Good bye Terry.